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What's New 2003/2004
What's New 2002
What's New 2001
What's New 2000
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New Exhibit Showcases Strashun Rare Book Collection On Thursday, December 13, 2001, YIVO's new exhibition, Matityahu Strashun: Scholar, Philanthropist, Book Collector, will open to the public.Samuel Strashun (1793-1872) and his son, Matityahu (Mathias) Strashun (1817-1885) were both distinguished Talmudic scholars and great philanthropists in 19th century Vilna (then in Poland, now Vilnius, Lithuania). The Strashun family was a staunch supporter of secular education as well as yeshiva studies. Along with the Harkavy and Romm families, to whom they were connected by marriage, they formed the backbone of the Jewish community of pre-Holocaust Vilna. Mathias Strashun spent a great part of his fortune on collecting rare Hebrew books. In his will he bequeathed his magnificent library to the Vilna community, thus creating one of the first Jewish public libraries in Eastern Europe. When the Russians occupied Vilna in 1940, the Strashun Library was merged with the Vilna YIVO Library. A year later, shortly following the Nazi conquest of the city, it was decreed that all Jewish books be crated and shipped to Frankfurt am Main. Fortunately, the liberating forces of the American Army discovered the stolen books in 1945, and returned them to YIVO in New York in 1947. "Jews always cherished their books and carried them into exile, whenever they were expelled by the whim of their rulers," Aviva Astrinsky, Head of the YIVO Library has said. "It is a great privilege to be working with these age-old books, many of which bear the writings or stamps of former owners—and of various censors, from the Papal Inquisition in Italy through the Tsarist censorship in the Russian Empire." In YIVO's earlier quarters at 1048 Fifth Avenue, there was very little space to display these precious books. "We are delighted to now be able to share them in our magnificent new home at the Center for Jewish History," noted Dr. Carl J. Rheins, YIVO Executive Director. "The preservation of the Strashun Rare Book Collection and the digitization of its card catalog were made possible through the generosity of Mrs. Tanya Corbin and Mr. Irwin Jacobs, and the Waber Fund. We are very grateful for their beneficence, which will ensure that this invaluable resource remains available to future generations."
Film, 12/17: "All My Loved Ones"
The Silberstein family is just like any other Czech family-that is, until the Nazis invade Czechoslovakia. As new racial laws begin to have an impact, each family member is forced to confront his or her Jewish identity. When it finally appears that it is too late to flee, the Silbersteins devote themselves to helping children. This powerful drama (based on the story of British stockbroker Nicholas Winton, who organized kindertransports, convoys of child refugees to England during the war) is an evocative study of the period.
Speaker: Film program presented in cooperation with the Czech Center, New York, and made possible through the generous support of Herman and Rose Schwimmer
Tickets $7.00/ Students and seniors $3.50.
Managing Editor Sought
Lecture, 11/26: "Traditional Songs of Litvakes"
This event is free but must be reserved through the Center for Jewish History box office at 917 606 8200.
Lectures and Concerts, November 12-18
Arrangement for this lecture made through the B'nai Brith Lecture Bureau
Featuring soprano Rosalie Becker and the New Yiddish Chorale (director: Zalmen Mlotek).
Program made possible through the generous support of the estate of Pearl Heifetz.
A lecture by Alan Mintz on the occasion of the publication of his book, Popular Culture and the Shaping of Holocaust Memory in America (University of Washington Press). Professor Mintz will examine the social forces that have allowed the appropriation of the Holocaust into American culture, the place of Holocaust commemoration in American Jewish life, and visions of how Americans will shape the memory of the Holocaust in the future. Alan Mintz is Kekst Professor of Hebrew Literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary, New York City. Book signing by the author.
A joint program of YIVO, the American Jewish Historical Society, and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
10/22-30: Films, lectures and more!
This unique documentary from Czech Television offers a new perspective on efforts by Orthodox Jews and leftist Zionists to save Jewish lives during the Holocaust. In an attempt to buy the freedom of Jews, the so-called "Bratislava Working Group" made overtures and gave massive bribes to the highest echelon of Nazi officials. The film includes testimony from many of the participants in the actual events.
Speaker:
Film program presented in cooperation with the Czech Center, New York, and made possible through the generous support of Herman and Rose Schwimmer
Tickets $7.00/ Students and seniors $3.50.
Professor Dov Levin was born in Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania. He was a member of the anti-Nazi underground movement in the Kovno Ghetto and later, a partisan fighter. He is the acting director of the Oral History Division of the Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Professor Levin has published many books and articles on the history of East European Jewry before, during, and after World War II, including Fighting Back: Lithuanian Jewry's Armed Resistance to the Nazis, 1941-1945 (Holmes & Meir, 1985) and The Litvaks: A Short History of the Jews in Lithuania (Yad Vashem, 2000).
Admission free. Space limited. Please call (212) 246-6080 to make a reservation.
For decades, the descendants of the great Yiddish writer Sholom Aleichem have honored his wish that they mark his yortsayt by gathering in their homes and reading his stories in both Yiddish and English. Prominent Jewish performers have performed at these gatherings, which have, in recent years, shifted to public venues.
Join us for an evening of bilingual readings by 4 veteran actors from the Yiddish theater and/or Broadway. Several of Sholom Aleichem's descendants will also appear to reminisce about the writer and about memorable annual family gatherings.
A joint program of YIVO and the Sholom Aleichem Memorial Foundation
Admission free. Space limited. Please call (212) 246-6080 to make a reservation.
Admission free. Space limited. Please call (212) 246-6080 to make a reservation.
For other upcoming YIVO events, please see our calendar of public programs.
October 15: "Jewish Politics in Eastern Europe"
Admission free. Space limited. Please call (212) 246-6080 to make a reservation.
For other upcoming YIVO events, please see our calendar of public programs.
2002 Fellowships Available
New Slavic Judaica in Library
Now Online!: New Fall Course Listings and Calendar of Public Programs
Ida Kaminska Exhibition to Open on May 30
An exhibition catalog will be available for purchase at the Center Shop.
Career Opportunities at YIVO
The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research seeks F/T Managing Editor for the Encyclopedia of the History and Culture of Jews in Eastern Europe.
Working in Manhattan at the Center for Jewish History, the ME will be charged with the day-to-day management and oversight of the preparation and production of the encyclopedia in all its aspects. He/she will report to the Editor-in-Chief and will also work closely with the Senior Editors and the publisher. More specifically, ME's duties will include: hiring and supervising support staff; managing the budget of the project; supervising preparation and management of correspondence and contracts with contributors and editors; overseeing the development and management of a general database that will track the status of entries and their developmental revision and editing; supervising the acquisition and preparation of illustrations and maps and obtaining the necessary permissions; organizing editorial and other meetings as necessary; coordinating procedures and liaison with the publisher; supervising the preparation of the final manuscript and coordinating publication process with the publisher.
The ideal candidate will have excellent interpersonal, intellectual, IT, administrative and editorial skills and experience. He/she must have database management and word-processing expertise. Experience in reference-work and academic publishing and/or graduate work in a related field highly desired. Knowledge of East European and/or Jewish languages a plus. 5-to-6 year project to begin upon the hire of qualified candidate.
Salary commensurate with experience; benefits.
The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research invites applications and nominations for the position of Director of the Archives.
Collecting materials documenting the life and creativity of East European Jewry has been a major focus of YIVO's mission since the Institute's inception. The approximately 1,400 record groups that make up the YIVO Archives occupy over 10,000 linear feet of shelf space and consist of over 22,000,000 documents. These collections consist predominantly of organizational records, manuscripts, correspondence, and printed materials. The Archives also holds photographs, films, videotapes, sound recordings, art works, and artifacts, most of which have been organized into the following special collections: Music Collections, Sound Archive, Photographic Archive, Film Archive, and Art and Artifacts Collection. The primary languages of the documents are Yiddish, English, Hebrew, Russian, Polish, French, and German. The collections, while covering a wide range of topics relating to Jewish history and culture around the world, concentrate on four main areas: East European Jewish history; history of the Jews in the United States; Yiddish language, literature, and culture; and the Holocaust. In 1992, YIVO acquired the Bund Archives, one of the foremost Jewish collections specializing in the history of the socialist and labor movements.
The Director of the Archives is responsible for the leadership and management of the department and is charged with overseeing accessioning, processing, cataloging, preservation, and access to materials; supervising collection development, automation, and preservation projects, and other initiatives designed to safeguard and provide improved access to collections; initiating grants related to archival needs and supervising their realization; and administering the departmental budget. The Archives Director will lead a staff of 10 in developing a shared vision for reference services and collection development; overseeing the ongoing implementation and assessment of initiatives that support that vision; analyzing and reshaping the Archives' services and policies in response to the needs of YIVO's clientele; and playing a leading role in Center-wide projects and committees. He/she will also be expected to develop strategies for increasing scholarly use of the collections and boosting public awareness of the Archives.
The successful candidate will have demonstrated abilities in leadership and fiscal management, at least 5 years administrative experience in a research archives, proficiency in Yiddish, a reading knowledge of Hebrew and a Slavic language, a background in East European Jewish studies, and experience in processing manuscripts and other archival materials. Familiarity with digital archives trends and developments is preferred. Availability as of September 1, 2001 is desired, if possible. Salary and benefits are highly competitive.
The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, the world’s leading center for the study of the history
and culture of East European Jewry, seeks applications for a part-time Grants Writer for its expanding Department of Development and External Affairs.
The Grants Writer will be responsible for expanding the Institute’s current level of sponsored research. The new incumbent should have a successful track record of obtaining grants from federal, state, municipal, and corporate funding sources. This position requires knowledge of funding sources and governmental regulations, and superb written and oral communications skills. Working knowledge of Microsoft Office is essential. A minimum of three (3) years related experience and a Master’s degree are required.
YIVO is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer
Inaugural Dina Abramowicz Memorial Lecture, July 11
The program is free and open to the public and will take place at YIVO at the Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street. Please call (212) 246-6080 to reserve a place.
Notice to Researchers: Reading Room to Open Late on 6/20
Vivian Lefsky Hort Memorial Lecture, June 26
The program is free and open to the public and will take place at YIVO at the Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street. Please call (212) 246-6080 to reserve a place.
Professor Jack Kugelmass to Deliver Choseed Memorial Lecture on June 12
The program is free and open to the public and will take place at YIVO at the Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street. Please call (212) 246-6080 to reserve a place.
"Vini-der-pu": Winnie the Pooh in Yiddish
Leonard Wolf, Yiddish translator of Winnie the Pooh, is a university teacher and writer of poetry, fiction, fiction, social history, and biography. His poetry and fiction have appeared in The Atlantic, Harper's, The New Yorker, and other literary magazines. He is the translator of Pantheon's Yiddish Folk Tales and of the works of many of this century's great Yiddish poets and writers. Suzanne Toren has appeared on and off Broadway, and in regional theaters throughout the U.S., as well as in television shows, including Law and Order. She is particularly well known for her work in the Yiddish theater and regularly performs with Leonard Wolf in the Golden Peacock Troupe, reading Yiddish poetry and stories.
A joint program of YIVO and the Sholom Aleichem Memorial Foundation. The program is free and open to the public and will take place in the auditorium at YIVO at the Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street. Please call (212) 246-6080 to reserve a place.
Inaugural Women's Luncheon to Take Place on May 21, 2001
Fanya Gottesfeld Heller is an author and philanthropist and recently dedicated the Center Shop at the Center for Jewish History in honor of her parents. She founded the Fanya Gottesfeld Heller Center for the Study of Women in Judaism at Bar Ilan University. Fanya is the recipient of the Louis E. Yavner Citizen Award from the New York Board of Regents in recognition of outstanding contributions to teaching about the Holocaust and other violations of human rights. She is the Chair of YIVO's Women's Committee and a member of YIVO's Board of Directors.
Sima Blofarb Katz is an active member and support of the Israeli and Jewish community and is a member of YIVO's Women's Committee. She and her husband Nathan recently dedicated the Shavl & Riteve Room at the Center for Jewish History in honor of their hometown in Shavl, Lithuania.
Esther Ancoli-Barbasch, a retired microbiologist, and Esther Mishkin, a retired social worker, are members of YIVO's Women's Committee and have been volunteers at YIVO for several years.
Guest speaker Yaffa Eliach is the President and Founder of the Shtetl Foundation; a Professor of History and Literature in the Department of Judaic Studies at Brooklyn College; founder of the first Center for Holocaust Studies in the United States; and the creator of the Tower of Life at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. She has written many books, including her most recent, There Once Was A World: A 900-Year Chronicle of the Shtetl of Eishyshok.
Please contact (212) 246-6080 to reserve a place at the luncheon or for more information about becoming a founding member of YIVO's new International Women's Division. Men are welcome. Support categories range from $75 (Friend/Fraynd) to $5,000 per table (Gaon Society).
Special Colloquium on Romanian Jewry During the Holocaust - May 8
The program will consist of a panel discussion by three of the leading experts on the fate of Romanian Jewry during the Holocaust, highlighting research in newly available records. Panelists will shed light on the Holocaust in Romania and in territories under Romanian administration.
Speakers:
The program is free and open to the public and will take place in the auditorium at YIVO at the Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street. Please call (212) 246-6080 to reserve a place.
"Sunshine" To Be Screened At YIVO - May 14
Upcoming YIVO Programs: Lecture by Fanya Gottesfeld Heller and Concert by Emily Corbato
On Thursday, April 19, at 7:30 p.m., Fanya Gottesfeld Heller will deliver an address in commemoration of Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), Again and Again: Ensuring the Legacy of the Holocaust. Mrs. Heller, the author of Strange and Unexpected Love, A Teenage Girl's Holocaust Memoirs (1993), will draw on her experiences as a teacher and scholar to explore ways to extend the impact of the Holocaust on human rights today.
On Sunday, April 29, at 2:00 p.m., acclaimed classical pianist Emily Corbato will perform Heritage: Music by Jewish Composers, a concert of music by Jewish composers. The program will feature pieces by contemporary composers such as Ernest Bloch, Felix Mendelssohn, and George Gershwin, as well as stunning works by less recognized masters such as Vivian Fine and Robert Cogan, some of which have never before been performed in New York.
Both programs are free and open to the public and will take place in the auditorium at YIVO at the Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street. Please call (212) 246-6080 to reserve a place.
YIVO to Honor Ruth Gruber and Nobel Prize Winner Dr. Eric Kandel
This year's guests of honor will be Ms. Ruth Gruber, author and rescuer, and Dr. Eric R. Kandel, winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Medicine.
Ruth Gruber is a journalist and the author of 15 books. Because of her courage in persuading State Department officials to help Jewish refugees during World War II, one thousand refugees were brought to the United States as "guests" of the government in 1944 and sheltered in Oswego, New York, where they waited out the war with no guarantee that they would be allowed to stay in the U.S. permanently. Ms. Gruber recounted these events in her book Haven,which was recently made into a television mini-series and broadcast on CBS.
Dr. Eric R. Kandel, himself forced to leave Europe as a child, has devoted his life to understanding the biochemistry of the brain, particularly that of memory. Along with two others, he received the 2000 Nobel Prize for his work on changes in brain cells when memories are formed. His leadership of the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior at Columbia University is nurturing new generations of laboratory researchers.
By honoring these two special guests with Lifetime Achievement Awards, YIVO is also reaffirming its own commitment to memory, righteous actions, and the pursuit of knowledge.
Tickets to the dinner are $600 per person. Through your generous support of our 76th Annual Benefit Dinner, you will help fund YIVO's library, archives, and educational and scholarly initiatives.
For more information, to make a contribution to the event, or to reserve a place at the dinner, please contact YIVO's Director of Development and External Affairs by email or call (212) 246-6080 by March 29.
Cynthia Ozick & Sidney Offit To Appear At YIVO
Cynthia Ozick is the world-renowned fiction and essay writer, whose work has been translated into more than 15 languages. Her novels, stories, and essays have won many awards, including the John Cheever Award (1999). Ozick's novels include The Messiah of Stockholm and The Puttermesser Papers. Her most recent book is Quarrel & Quandary: Essays (2000).
Sidney Offit is a writer, teacher, and the curator of the George Polk Journalism Awards. He is the author of several novels, including Memoir of the Bookie's Son (1996) and books for young readers. Mr. Offit is currently President of the Author's Guild Foundation.
This joint program of YIVO and the Sholom Aleichem Foundation is free and open to the public. Please call (212) 246-6080 to reserve a place.
Winter 2000-2001 YIVO News In Print & On Web
Upcoming YIVO Public Programs
Professor Anna Foa to Speak on February 28
Professor Foa's talk will draw from her recent book, The Jews of Europe After the Black Death (2000), a work which challenges widely held assumptions to depict the history of Jewish life in Europe as the story of creativity and stability, as much as of catastrophe. Foa will be introduced by Andrea Grover, Adjunct Associate Professor of Humanities at New York University.
The program is free and open to the public. Please call (212) 246-6080 to reserve a place or to obtain more information.
Author Leslie Epstein to Open Spring 2001 YIVO Institute Lecture Series Leslie Epstein grew up in Hollywood, the son and nephew of legendary screenwriters Philip G. and Julius J. Epstein (Arsenic and Old Lace, Casablanca, The Man Who Came to Dinner, and others). He attended Yale, and later Oxford, on a Rhodes Scholarship. Epstein is the acclaimed author of eight works of fiction, including King of the Jews (1979), a novel about the Lodz Ghetto; Pandemonium (1997), set in Hollywood's golden age; and most recently, Ice Fire Water: A Leib Goldkorn Cocktail (2000), which is a continuation of the adventures of Leib Goldkorn, a character from earlier novels. His various articles, stories, and reviews, include "Writing About the Holocaust" in Writing and the Holocaust (1988). In addition to having been a Rhodes Scholar, Epstein has held fellowships from the NEA and the Guggenheim Foundation. His honors include an award for Distinction in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. His current writing project is a historical novel on the Jewish community of Rome.
YIVO Honors Maria and Kazimierz Piechotka with 2000 Jan Karski Prize
Both Maria and Kazimierz Piechotka attended the Department of Architecture at the Warsaw Polytechnic before 1939. When the Second World War broke out, they continued their studies at secret courses in German-occupied Warsaw. The Piechotkas later joined the Polish Underground Home Army and fought in the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944, for which both have been awarded high military distinctions. In 1945, when liberated from a German POW camp, they resumed work as architects, and continued until their retirement in 1980 and 1981, respectively.
The Piechotkas' lifelong passion for studying Polish synagogue architecture has been best expressed in their many publications and presentations. Their first book on the subject, Boznice drewniane (Wooden Synagogues), was published by Arkady Publishing (Warsaw, 1957), with an English-language edition in 1959. A much-expanded version of the book appeared thirty-five years later as Bramy nieba: boznice drewniane (Heaven's Gates: Wooden Synagogues), Krupski Publishing (Warsaw 1996). This book originated in their friendship with Szymon Zajczyk, the art/architecture historian and photographer who photographed and made drawings of many Polish wooden synagogues during the interwar period. (All these synagogues were later destroyed in the Holocaust.) Zajczyk himself perished in Warsaw in 1944, but his rich archive survived. It served as the basic source for subsequent works on synagogues, of which the Piechotkas' book, dedicated to Szymon Zajczyk, is the most important and best known.
Bramy nieba: boznice drewniane was followed by the Piechotkas' magnum opus on brick-and-stone synagogues: Bramy nieba: boznice murowane (Heaven's Gates: Masonry Synagogues), Krupski Publishing (Warsaw, 2000). The concluding volume to this magnificent triptych, now in preparation, explores the relationship between the Jewish populations and the urban space of the Polish towns they inhabited. The Piechotkas have also contributed many essays about synagogue architecture to specialized and general journals in Poland and abroad, and have popularized the subject through exhibitions and media presentations.
The late Professor Jan Karski was the envoy of the Polish government-in-exile during World War II and brought to the West firsthand testimony about the conditions in the Warsaw Ghetto and in German concentration camps in Poland. The prize is also named in memory of Professor Karski's late wife, choreographer Pola Nirenska. Maria and Kazimierz Piechotka will receive the 2000 Jan Karski and Pola Nirenska Prize in February 2001 at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.
Recent Library Acquisitions
New YIVO Spring 2001 Programs
Click here for a full calendar of events.
Career Opportunities at YIVO
Duties include:
YIVO is an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer.
Music Archivist Note: This position has been filled
The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is seeking a professional to assume the post of Music Archivist in the YIVO Archives. The YIVO Institute is a research, training, and resource center in Jewish studies specializing in the history and culture of Eastern and Central European Jews and their descendants in the United States. The archives and library of YIVO maintain a comprehensive collection of manuscripts, documents and publications which, among others, includes sizable collections of Jewish music in manuscript and in print.
The Music Archivist is expected to process the Vladimir Heifetz papers and other collections of Jewish composers, choral directors, teachers and performers deposited in the YIVO Archives. The music to be processed comprises Jewish and Hebrew classical and popular works, Yiddish folk music, Yiddish theater music, liturgical compositions, Hasidic compositions, and Israeli works. The processing of these materials will consist of sorting, identifying and arranging, and preparing descriptive finding aids. Additionally, the successful candidate will provide reference and information services to the public.
Grants Writer (Part-Time)
The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, the world’s leading center for the study of the history
and culture of East European Jewry, seeks applications for a part-time Grants Writer for its expanding Department of Development and External Affairs.
The Grants Writer will be responsible for expanding the Institute’s current level of sponsored research. The new incumbent should have a successful track record of obtaining grants from federal, state, municipal, and corporate funding sources. This position requires knowledge of funding sources and governmental regulations, and superb written and oral communications skills. Working knowledge of Microsoft Office is essential. A minimum of three (3) years related experience and a Master’s degree are required.
YIVO is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer
Special Film Screening, January 24: "Beyond Hitler's Grasp"
Beyond Hitler's Grasp is based on a 1998 book of the same title by Professor Michael
Bar-Zohar, a Bulgarian Jew, who is a writer, a historian, and a former member of the Israeli Knesset. Professor Bar Zohar is the author of many works of fiction and is the official biographer of Israeli leader David Ben Gurion.
Speakers will include Professor Bar-Zohar and special guest, Philip Dimitrov, the Bulgarian Ambassador to the U.S.
The screening is free and open to the public. Seating is limited. Please call (212) 246-6080 to reserve a place.
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